In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle
by scratchienails
Summary: A series of brief moments in the early days of the future pirate king. Before Shanks, before the fruit, before Ace, Sabo, and Dadan, Monkey D. Luffy was just a young kid with a crazy, but absent, grandfather. Those days had more affect on him than anyone will ever know.
1. EAT

**Hey! First fic in a long time, though I'll be putting up another later today, probably. This is just a set of drabbles, a sort of possibly AU look into Luffy's early childhood. Luffy is the only character that's going to show up, besides mentions of Makino and Garp, though there will be a surprise guest in the last. They will be about eight of these, each looking into some aspect of Luffy's character or one of his habits.**

**And without any further ado...**

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**EAT (and live)**

Luffy hated the empty feeling.

It was dark, and cold, and his tummy was roaring like a lion, and he felt empty. He bit at his lip, nervously avoiding the rustling fern three feet away and was forced to walk through the brambles instead. They clawed at his bare ankles and shins, caught on his shirt like the hands of the villagers when he caused a fuss. But they did not make the emptiness go away. If anything, they made it worse.

He sucked on his thumb. His mouth was a little dry.

The gurgling sound almost scared him, but he realized it was his own body's protest after ducking behind a tree. The noises didn't help the empty either.

He tripped over a root next, his hands grazing the bark of a sapling and rough ground scraping his knees. Somehow, the pain made the emptiness seem less bad. A sharp rock got caught between his foot and his sandal, and _that _hurt a bit. Made walking hard too. There was a slickness building beneath his foot, but it didn't matter if his foot was slippery, 'cause he was wearing sandals. The emptiness was a priority, so he stumbled on, ignoring the hiss of animals and wind between the trees.

The emptiness is worse, he told himself, and that made the other fears fade away.

But then he lost his footing and rolled down a hill, bumping into roots and such along the way, and just scraping himself even worse.

Empty, empty, empty.

Hungry! That's what they call it!

He needed food!

...

But where did he get food out here? He'd already been out in the woods for a sunrise and sunset, and still hadn't found his way back to the village.

But then, he got lucky! Berries! He landed right in the bush, after another fall, surrounded by orangey-red circles and deep green leaves. And he was hungry, ravenously so.

So he ate. And ate, and ate.

Then, he retched. He retched and coughed up strange white foam, and convulsed on the ground, shivering. His tummy screamed and burned, and he felt wetness in his eyes, and twisted pain impaling him through, but somehow...

He didn't feel so empty anymore.

The villagers found him like that, not that he remembered them stumbling across him or getting rushed back, but he did recall the miserable days that followed, the burning and sickness, and the retching.

Next time he was in the jungle, when the hunger was back and horrible as ever, he encountered the berries again. He remembered them well, but he was so, so hungry...!

The second time was better than the first. He still threw up, still lay paralyzed on the ground for a long while, but could eventually heave himself up and stumble onwards.

And so, Monkey D. Luffy learned to eat, wherever, whenever, and whatever, as much as possible, because the next meal was never guaranteed but the emptiness was. And years later, if some slowly acquired poison immunities helped him survive hell and its warden, no one would ever know.

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**I hope you enjoyed!**

** I'll be updating in about a week with the next: RUN (and live)! Also, keep an eye out for the first chapter of my multi-chap story that'll be published sometime this weekend: Home Free, a Marine!Strawhats fic.**


	2. RUN

**Hey guys! Thanks so much to everyone that reviewed! Here's the next, bit shorter than the last, but next week's is longer!**

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**RUN (and live)**

Some days, he could just wander through the jungle endlessly. Bugs were annoying and buzzed around his head, but certain flowers kept 'em away. He inevitably ended up eating something he wasn't supposed to, so that stopped worrying him after the first couple of times. It just happened! And cuts and bruises were a given, 'cause the jungle was dark and the moonlight couldn't penetrate the thick foliage.

Sometimes there were snakes, and they hissed and waved in the breeze, rearing back with mouths open. He got to know them well, always freezing solid and making a small target, then, when they were just almost furthest leaned back, seconds away from striking, he would lunge out of the way. Snakes, he could handle.

Birds were pointless and harmless and sometimes even led him to food, showed him how to get through a plant's defenses to get at the fruit. Birds were birds, not much else.

Beetles were the coolest, with their hard shells and skinny legs and funny antenna. He liked beetles a lot.

The bigger animals, not so much.

He met a tiger for the first time in an awkward, kind of barely visual encounter.

It had started with a growl; he even thought it was his tummy at first! Then, there was nothing, just the faint crackle of leaves. He barely noticed; too busy inspecting a neat little arthropod with a back so shiny it reflected the rainbow.

That beetle saved his life.

It flew away, and he turned to watch it, maybe even chase it, only to find himself face to face with huge yellow, feline eyes, a broad furry face, and broad black stripes across tangerine fur.

He froze, like with the snakes, but the beast didn't. It kept creeping forward, haunches raised and its front low to the earth. Even still, it towered over him, powerful muscle rippling under its coat with every movement.

It had claws, and fangs, and the keen eyes of a hunter. He shook, heart beating fast, too fast, so loud it was a drum in his ears, and a chill gripped him tight. He wanted to scream, to cry, but his mouth was stuck solidly shut.

The tiger crept closer. Ten feet, eight feet, seven...

And he bolted, ducking behind the closest tree as the beast launched itself into the air. He scrambled away as its paws tore at the ground, the monstrous creature twisting around to give chase.

He ran and ran, sandaled feet meeting the jungle floor like clap, clap, clap, the snarls of the monster shaking his bones and pushing him faster. Breathe in, breathe out. Right foot, left foot, hop over that root, up that rock, slide down the other side. His usual clumsiness was lost in the flight, overtaken by instinct and lightning reflexes he never knew he possessed. Arms pumping, Luffy learned to run for all he's worth, and when he finally escaped the jungle, the beast lost somewhere long behind, the villagers looked at his cuts and asked if he fell again.

And he laughed and continued on, with giddy exhilaration and pure adrenaline, the sheer jubilation of life, until they too were left behind with his footsteps.

After all, nothing could keep up with the wind.

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**Next up is Yell (and Live), and is a bit darker. (Or maybe a lot darker, depending on your feelings about child abandonment) **


End file.
